Bishop Bars Holy Communion For Pro-choice Legislator

November 17, 1989|By Los Angeles Times

SAN DIEGO — Roman Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher has barred California assemblywoman Lucy Killea from receiving Holy Communion because of her pro-choice stand on abortion in a special state Senate campaign.

It is apparently the first such action ever imposed by a bishop against a Catholic elected official in the United States over the abortion issue.

In a two-page letter in which he describes Killea, a San Diego Democrat, as ''an advocate of this most heinous crime,'' Maher banned her from receiving Communion unless she recants her pro-choice position.

A four-term legislator with a solidly pro-choice voting record, Killea said that she will abide by Maher's order not to receive Communion. She says she has ''no intention of changing a position I arrived at after a lot of very serious thought.''

''A knew I was in disagreement with the church hierarchy, but I'm surprised by the severity and punitive nature of the bishop's letter,'' said Killea, who faces a special Dec. 5 race for a vacant state Senate seat in San Diego County. ''Perhaps they're trying to make an example out of me.''

Within both political and religious circles, Maher's crackdown is widely viewed as the opening salvo in an intensified anti-abortion campaign. It grew out of last week's declaration by the nation's 300 bishops that a pro-choice position is not an option for Roman Catholics. The bishops said Catholic politicians would no longer go unchallenged if they disagree with the church.